The CDG Institute questions the subject of education in Morocco

As part of the series of conferences “Looking to the future”, 2020 edition, the CDG Institute organized its fourth webinar on Tuesday, October 13 under the theme: “For a more dynamic vision of the role of education”.

Morocco has made the reform of its education system a national priority with the objective of making it a powerful lever for its development ambition. However, despite the various reforms carried out and several positive advances, the pedagogical issue and the quality of teaching remain a weak point.

The panel of this meeting is made up of experts in education, Jamil Salmi a global expert in tertiary education policy advisor and consultant based in Bogota, Ms. Ilham Laaziz, director of the Engineering Program Ministry of National Education, Mohamed Soual, President of the Association for Excellence in Education, Chief Economist OCP, Rachid Yazami, Professor, Inventor, Researcher and Entrepreneur Charles Stark Draper Prize 2014 from the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in Washington DC. Rachid Yazami is based in Singapore and finally Noureddine Mouaddib is founder and current president of the International University of Rabat and as moderator, of course Aziz Boucetta, director of Panorapost.

While the modes, contents and objects of education are called to evolve considerably in the future, Morocco is faced with a double requirement: to prepare its youth for life in the 21st century, for the exercise of active citizenship. and personal development, but also to produce skills and qualified profiles capable of meeting the needs in terms of employment, competitiveness and transformation of its economy.

The speakers were unanimous on the fact that the educational act can no longer be reduced to the teacher’s speech alone. There are many areas of student development that need to be considered that extend beyond technology and basic academic skills (literacy, math and science). Problem solving, critical thinking, the ability to positively welcome challenges, creativity, risk taking, collaborative economy, entrepreneurship, social skills, environmental awareness and, finally, learning to learn will become key skills for adult life in 21st century society.

Teaching and deepening these skills, so that students are prepared for lifelong learning in today’s complex world, requires strong educational models that foster a culture of quality.

Lifelong learning is motivated by the shift from an industrial model of production to a dynamic, interconnected and technology-dominated global knowledge economy. For employees, a constant increase in skills is essential and remains employable throughout their career.

Achid Yazami summed it up so well: “The goal of education, whatever it is, is to allow young people to integrate into their society by finding a job », Regretting, however, that this is not an absolute truth in Morocco and that it was repeated from year to year and from decade to decade.

For Madame Ilham Laaziz, the face of the selection creates exclusion: “ Why continue to have this very French approach of having the best in preparatory class take them to elite schools in Europe only to lose them because they end up in the United States ”. And to continue: “For me the school of tomorrow is a school which is made for all the pupils whatever their predispositions or their capacity. »

According to Mohamed Soual, president of the Association for Teaching Excellence: “ Young people need to be oriented properly and not in a uniform manner. We can recognize students’ skills very early on, and therefore be able to support them so that they can exploit their different talents. »

Jamil Salmi « I always come back to the quality, the human element and the quality of teacher training. When we look at countries like Finland, Singapore or South Korea which have the best results in secondary education which determines a better knowledge in higher education and well we realize that there is a big difference with our countries with our cultures it is that the teacher is recognized, respected and rewarded. In Morocco that is lost, and the drama in our society in many cases we become a teacher by default. In the three aforementioned countries, the best students become teachers ».

Noureddine Mouaddib deplored the lack of consistency in the education system and emphasized massification by supporting it with figures (in a decade 120,000 graduates to 240,000 and 300,000 students to 1 million).

According to him, ” the system cannot be taken only by one end, it is a comprehensive reform. The big problem we have in Morocco, and let me say it, is that we have a concern for public policy in this sector. That is to say, that with each change of government and therefore of political tendency, we completely change the orientation of the projects that we had initiated before.».

As for massification, he said, “ Morocco like a lot of countries knows this phenomenon. When we are faced with this, public policies will try to manage the quantitative first and place young people before focusing on the qualitative. ».